Liberal activist groups MoveOn.org and Democracy for America announced Tuesday they were planning to launch a “Draft Warren” movement to change Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s mind about not running for president in 2016.
The announcement reflects the growing frustration the Democratic Party’s liberal wing feels regarding Hillary Clinton’s early domination of the Democratic primary.
Both groups said they would make the announcement official Wednesday morning pending an online vote by MoveOn.org’s members on whether to launch the campaign. Given Warren’s popularity among the liberal grassroots, there appears to little doubt that a majority will say yes.
“If the vote succeeds, the group will focus on persuading the Massachusetts senator, who has become known as a tireless, passionate advocate for middle-class and working families, to seek the presidency,” MoveOn.org said. The group, first launched in 1998 to prevent President Clinton’s impeachment, claims eight million members and has promised to pour $1 million into the “first phase of the launch.”
Democracy for America, the group founded by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, announced Tuesday it was joining MoveOn.org’s effort.
“Washington consultants can spout off a dozen reasons why Elizabeth Warren shouldn’t run, but none of that Beltway blather means a thing next to this one, simple truth: The Democratic Party and our country desperately need Warren’s voice in the 2016 presidential debate,” said DFA’s executive director Charles Chamberlain.
Warren’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The senator has been the darling of the activist Left ever since she withdrew from consideration to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2011 in the face of Republican objections to her nomination. She won U.S. Senate seat the following year and has used it as a platform to attack Wall Street and big business in the name of economic justice.
Many on the Left would prefer her to be the party’s nominee in 2016, believing her message can win over a general audience, not just the Left. Warren has consistently said she would not run in 2016, though, even telling another liberal leader in a “hot mic” moment in May that “nothing can change my mind.” However, a less-than-ironclad denial in a recent People magazine interview gave some liberals some hope that she might be reconsidering.
Running would likely lead to a bruising intra-party fight given Hillary Clinton’s early lead in the primary. Nevertheless, many liberal groups would like to see it.
The lead editorial in the current edition of liberal magazine the Nation laid out the rationale: “The desire for an alternative to Clinton is real [and] … We share that desire… [E]ven the most ardent Hillary supporters should acknowledge that the Democratic Party, and the country, will be better served if she has real competition in the primaries.”
Liberals fear that without a primary challenge, Clinton will move more towards the center in an effort win the presidency. A November Quinnipiac poll found she was the top choice of just of 57 percent of Democrats, indicating that more than two-fifths of the party were still looking elsewhere for a candidate.
“There is too much at stake to have anything other than our best candidates in the debate. We are prepared to show Senator Warren she has the support she needs to enter — and win — the presidential race,” said Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action.
Hillary Clinton’s relationship with the party’s liberal wing has often been strained. Some remain angered by her husband’s presidency and his policy of “triangulation” between the Left and Right that resulted in welfare reform and free-trade deals like NAFTA. Many find her too hawkish on foreign policy. As a New York senator, she supported the Iraq War resolution and subsequently defended it through most of her 2008 presidential bid. As secretary of state, she supported military action in Syria and Libya. Others see the former Walmart board member as too close to big business.
Warren’s popularity is such that even Hillary Clinton has claimed to be a fan and taken to mimicking her rhetoric, telling an October Democratic election rally in Massachusetts: “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs.”
